not jut lip service
Many companies claim great customer service. But when it comes time to actually give great service, they fall way short. This is not the case with FastCap.

I Had an issue yesterday because of a miscommunication (that was partly my own fault). Paul was on the phone with me immediately. We worked out a solution, and the parts are sitting my desk as I type this note. AT NO EXTRA COST!! They sent them overnight! It would have been very easy for them to say it was my fault and put all extra cost on me, but they took responsibility, regardless of fault and made it right. FastCap is the kind of company you want to do business with. What a great attitude they have, and it is such a pleasure working with the people from FastCap!

fastcap tipmag
Guys i love your tipmag, i use it for cabinetmaking it saves me so much time it truly holds the screws. i have just placed an order to keep some spare i think the tipmag is more important then the driver or bit its for.
well done

Thank you!
Paul, I greatly thank you for giving me the opportunity to immerse myself in your lean philosophy and operations at FastCap. I have learned an incredible amount during my last three month starting with the definition of lean: knowing the wastes, seeing the wastes, and then finding improvements. Another idea that stuck with me was the evenness of daily improvements, as compared to typical Kaizen events.

There are also many operational ideas I will take with me such a the flexibility of wheels, asking why everywhere (to not only inform yourself but others as well), standard work, and metrics such as internal business segmentation with the dashboard.

During an interview I recently had with Barlean's, they used a lot of ideas such as "fix what bugs you"... I can tell FastCap has reached them. I told them a story of the 8 wastes I encountered when dealing with defected PS-16 tape measures, it appeared to have hit home this time as I will be starting a position there next week.

I would also like thank your employees for letting me easily transition into helping them with their daily tasks. My last 3 months at FastCap have been an experience that I will take with me for the rest of my life. You will hear from me again with ideas and questions.

Thank you,

Ansel Koehler

Thrilled!
Hello Paul,

Just wanted to drop you a line to tell you how thrilled I am with the iPole mini. But specifically, I hope you are seeing a rash of orders coming in from New Jersey! I can't help myself but I tell everyone about this device and your site.

I was at a photography talk last night where there were about 50 professional photographers. As usual I had my iPhone and iPole mini with me and after the talk a circle gathered around me. People were furiously writing down your website and I suspect there will be lots of contacts in the coming days.

Keep up the good work and your excellent customer service.

All the best,

-Chod Lang

Love the Puka Patch
Hey, Fastcappers! I called in yesterday with a question:Can the Puka Patch be used to repair a hole in an easy-set above-ground pool?(Sorry, I forget the name of the young lady who took my call)Your associate checked and said if the patch is put on the inside, it should work. The pool is filled to where we need it(we didn't fill it to full this year because it would be too deep for our youngest child). My wife also used the Puka Patch to reinforce around a hole she cut for the new pump inlet location. My wife is impressed and we have four very happy kids! Thanks!

Wow!
Hey Paul- Wow.

Last night, in one sitting, I watched the entire "Gemba Live" feature (http://youtu.be/ZalxmE5Savc) that Ron Pereira did on Fastcap. I was so inspired and excited by it that it took me a long time to calm down enough to fall asleep.

I think more than anything else, it was hearing from your people and seeing the great improvements they've made that really made the videos so powerful. The culture you have built at Fastcap is to your immense credit. Your are one of my heros and definitely a role model, as I dream that one day to build a culture that is even a fraction as strong and positive as the one guys have.

I was so excited that I made a video thanking the whole team at Fastcap:

http://youtu.be/reZXY7utrZM

While watching the videos, there was one issue that came up that I was hoping to ask you, and it regards the mission and/or purpose of Fastcap. Both during the videos and in the past, I've heard you say that the mission, first and foremost, of Fastcap is:
To serve your customers
To grow people
To be a Lean company
To make outstanding products

I was wondering how all of those (and maybe others that I have missed) fit together - is one the most dominant? Or perhaps one is the mission, one is the purpose, and one is something else?

I guess what I am asking is, what is at the core?

Thanks again,
Sam Korb

Great Job Shelly!
Paul, just wanted to take a second a let you know what a great job Shelly in customer service did for me. I was in a bind, and needed a custom roll of fast edge. Our distributor didn't appear to know how to get this done. Shelly agreed to just take care of it for me instead of making me go through the process of educating our dealer. First class, thank you.
Wishing you and your team all the best!
Doug

Just finished Your Book
I just finished reading the last six chapters last night...

The final big take-away I got from the book were your comments about Kaizen events (p. 110) and how they really are an uneven approach to Lean that can be disruptive or even burdensome and thus hard to get buy-in for. I also think they are maybe a bit disempowering because they send the message that change is something we can only do occasionally with big projects, and outside of that it is business as usual. Unfortunately this is how almost all Lean initiatives start, in part I think because it is a model that works well for consultants. But governments and politicians like big projects for other reasons as well.

Contrast that to my 2 second improvement this morning. There was a hole punch that wasted about five minutes of my time yesterday because it seized up on the 24-sheet document I tried to hole-punch yesterday. Today literally 15 seconds with some shredder oil I brought from home fixed that problem for anyone else who uses that hole punch in the coming months, saving probably hours of waste all told. One beauty of this is that I didn't need any executive sign-off or stakeholder consultations to do this. While it is small, the return is probably measurable in 1,000s of percents! If you do that every day, with everyone in an organization, how can you not have amazing results?

For myself, it also caused me to realize that hole-punching is overprocessing to begin with, I can just keep a document in a folder and it is actually easier for me to work with that way.

Even better (now that I am actually using my brain on this problem which I would have thought beneath me), I can read and annotate a document electronically and avoid even the step of printing it (Overprocessing), going to the printer (Motion), _Waiting_ for my job to come out, and bringing it back to my desk (Transportation), filing it away (Motion / Inventory), and then, all too often, realizing I actually needed a different report (Defect), or just a few pages of it (Overproduction), and while I am dealing with all that Waste I am being Underutilized by my department and wasting the customer's (taxpayer's) dollar. There we go, all the 8 wastes just in the act of printing a document!

Next Billy Mays
Thanks Sandi,
I can not wait to try them out!
It must be fun working with Paul. If you ask me, he is the next Billy Mays. I am not even in the woodworking business, yet I feel like I want to buy everything on your site just because of his genuine passion and enthusiasm.
Now that I think of it, one of my clients is a custom cabinet maker in Brooklyn called "Quality Woodworking". I'll be sure to bring him a catalog.
Regards,
Joe

i cant thank you enough
i would like to thank everyone for helping me find the part i misplaced, no charge for the part or for shipping. absolutely great. no questions asked even shipping to canada. i would not have known where to start looking to purchase one. excellent excellent. i am so happy now i can use my laser again. i would certainly recommend this company to anyone looking to purchase any of your products. i cant thank you enough, bill.

Raving Fan:"2P-10 Completely ROCKS!!!" - David

Raving Fan:"...your FastCap product videos are GREAT!" - Rick

Raving Fan:"You treat your customers great." - Rich

Raving Fan:"With service like this, I might develop an unhealthy obsession with you guys." - Mike

Raving Fan:"Your American Innovator show has given me comfort that there is a world of lean thinkers out there." - Kevin

Raving Fan:"Paul, I love your book because it's really common sense and easy!!!!" - Sebrina

Raving Fan:"Your company has provided amazing customer service." - John

Raving Fan:"I want to thank you and your company for a wonderful tour of your facilities." - Adam

Raving Fan:"Few people in the Lean community come close to matching Paul in enthusiasm for spreading the gospel of Lean." - Sam